Four Things about Case Studies: Thing 2: Finding your Hero

From Case Study to Success Story – Building Trust in the Water Industry

Introduction

We’ve seen how to build a success story from a water industry case study. Another key thing you need to turn your case study into a compelling success story is a Hero. A critical part of the story is selecting the right case study candidate to interview. You want someone who is happily using your product, but they also need to be able to talk about how your product solved their problem.

Thing 2, when moving from a case study to a
success story, is about how to find the Hero of your success story.

Thing 2: Finding your Hero

Who is a Hero?

It is important to find a case study
candidate that qualifies as a hero for your success story. You want a smart business leader who
identified a challenge or just a better way to solve a problem. Someone who checked out the different options
and picked your solution. So, you want someone
who has:

an in-depth product knowledge;

experienced remarkable or even
unexpected results;

a recognizable brand name;
and/or

switched from a competitor’s
product to yours.

Your Hero should know your product or
service well. That product knowledge
will come through during the interview.

Where is your Hero?

So, how do
you find your Hero? You can look for
people who are already talking about your product or you can start by canvassing
customers.

Find people who already love your product/service.

Check with your sales and service teams. They hear directly from clients and customers
and may know of specific customers that had outstanding results and are happy
to talk about it.

Check on review sites on the internet. Your customers may be posting reviews of your
products. Customers may be talking about
you on social media sites.

Send out emails to a list of customers

Customers on your email list are another
source of potential candidates.

When using email for reach out to case
study candidates, you need to follow a few simple rules:

Keep your first, introductory
email short and to the point. Suggest a time and date to chat further but no
specific details.

Mention them by name in the
email. Don’t send out generic emails;
make it personal.

Include your own name,
too. Let them know who they are dealing
with.

Be complimentary. Boost their
ego and make them feel special for being asked to participate. It may make them more likely to agree to
participate.

Attach the questions you’d like
to ask. This will help them decide whether they want to work with you on your
success story.

Will the Hero participate?

You may need to convince your Hero to
participate. Emphasize the benefits of
being a Hero. You could offer a monetary
incentive, but this tends to come off as a bit dubious. Convince your case study candidate that participating
in a case study is really about free publicity and thought leadership.

Your Hero should understand that being part
of this success story is a win-win situation.
You get to tell your good news story and it gets the Hero’s company out
on your channels as well as theirs.

Is the Hero right for the job?

Once you have a short list of case study
candidates you need to decide which hero is right for the job. Conduct a brief interview with each candidate
and ask these three questions to reveal all:

Tell me about your company.

Which of our products do you
use?

What benefits have you gotten
from our products?

You want someone you will give you complete
answers. It would be even better if they
volunteer information.

Avoid those who give vague, and/or short,
answers. If they can’t define the
benefits they have enjoyed, move on. While
chatting, make sure your Hero is going to be easy to work with. You will be connecting with them several
times over the course of the project.

Let the runners-up down easy

After you decide on the hero for your
success story, be sure to let the runners-up down easy. Let them know that you appreciate their time,
but their story is not in line with current marketing strategies. You may want to use their story in future.

Conclusion

Your case study candidate is the hero of
your success story. By picking the right
hero and interviewing effectively, your case study will almost write itself.

In next week’s post we look at to conduct
the interview to get the most out of your time with the client in Thing 3: Your
Hero may need help….

Are
you so busy making a difference to your clients that you don’t have time to
tell your good news stories? Have you
solved a wastewater problem for a client, a community, a country? Then get that
story out there! Let the world know how
your company solves problems and makes a difference.

That’s
where WATER COPY comes in. I research and
write top quality science-based success stories.